Land Use/Cover Changes of Rangelands and Τheir Impact on the Economic Performance of Transhumant Livestock

Transhumance still constitutes an important sector of the livestock economy for Greece. Sheep and goat transhumance is the most important (7.5% of the national flock), but transhumant cattle are also non-negligible and are constantly increasing. Relevant literature has established direct links and relationships between ruminant grazing in rangelands, floristic diversity and land cover. The purpose of this paper was to investigate this relationship and its economic repercussions in a mountainous area and to propose relevant management strategies and measures. The study area was the highland area of Grevena Prefecture in Northern Greece, where a very significant part of transhumant flocks spend the period from late May to early October. The land use/cover classification was produced, using aerial photography surveys of 1985 and 2009. Comparisons were made and land use/cover changes were assessed jointly with changes in stocking rates. The implications of land use/cover changes on the economic performance of transhumant farms were then explored. The analysis involved the division of the study area into three distinct types according to the degree of encroachment. A comparative descriptive analysis was carried out on a sample of 62 farms in total and Cobb-Douglas production functions were estimated. The results of these analyses demonstrated that changes in land use/cover had impact on livestock performance. This revealed that changes in ecosystem biodiversity and productivity due to encroachment resulted in limited accessibility of animals to the available grazing areas and also affected the positive relationship between floristic diversity and productivity. This abstract was accepted to be presented at the conference entitled “ 40 Years of Horticulture Education in Cluj-Napoca ” Cluj-Napoca, September 27, 2017, being included in ‘Book of Abstracts’ of this special-anniversary event ( http://conference.shst.ro ). All accepted papers will be published in a special issue of Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca journal.